« Au Tour de la Table » is a Podcast of a « Mini Escape Game » with SpaceHulk theme and Kill Team rules (modified and weak). I believe Technologies, BoardGames and Podcast can bring new experiences.

See the video in YouTube to see Chapters with cool moments

Board Game

3D Printing

The 3D parts comes from Dragon Rest. Each part of 3×4 takes about 24H to print at 130% on Artillery Sidewinder X2 with PLA and 0.20mm.

Each parts is linked to each other with N35 magnets from Aliexpress using modified CLIP from Dragon Rent.

The HVAC Tunnel kit provides 1×1 parts to build custom larger rooms. And some people designed add-on like tokens to stick on the side, doors and even a full elevator !!!

Citadel Paint

Games Workshop released the 10th edition of WarHammer 40K in June 2023. The main theme is war a war between Terminators and Tyranids.

It takes 4-5 hours to paint a 3D part using Leadbelcher Spray then all metallic effects. All shadows in grids and copper outside takes most of the time.

Fog of War

It’s fun to discover each rooms step by step. That’s why I introduce blip alien tokens and laser cut cardboard to hide each room.

I design a 3D print leveler that stick to the tunnel and maintain the cardboard on top of large tank.

Electronics

I hack a 3D Print room to include NeoPixels WS2812 and Wires to a LILYGO T-Display that can be remote controlled in WIFI. When a mini enter the room I start the HUD video linked to Philips HUE Sync.

On the other side I include a Holocube into a room. It’s a screen that reflect into a prism. Under the Lab I set induction ring to power mini leds that stick to the doors and minis without wires.

SmartTable

The board is installed of the 3rd version of my SmartTable equiped with a lift mechanism touch foil and Higole PC that display on the TV a space travel video.

HUD Display

Next to the SmartTable a regular TV is displaying ComLink video to the team to behave like if it was their HUD display. For instance when revealing the boss.

Story Telling

The gaming immersion starts with the story. Sending generative AI content to frame the game and add imagination to the physical word. And it takes A LOT of time too …

Midjourney

I use Midjourney to generate characters, spaceships, monsters, and even ship texture of fog of war ! Prompting and Inpainting are powerfull tools that must be mastered …

HeyGen and Runway Gen2

From image to video, HeyGen can perform lipsync on static images and Gen2 can somehow animate images (also have PikaLab in my radar).

On the other hand, sometimes I use Microsoft Custom Neuro Voice to generate audio that will be input to HeyGen. Davinci Resolve is also a handy hack to stitch everything together.

Setup

All the game is setup around the SmartTable that bring power to DIY devices, display the live background with engaging sound and lighting.

Cameras

Logitech Mevo are awesome indoor camera to capture the board in low-light room. They are attach and powered to the table. I plug wireless microphone that works very well !

The DJI Osmo Pocket 2 capture all the interview and board close-up. It’s hard to master and record. I didn’t use the mic but I should have. I use a Pixel 7 Pro for awesome picture 🙂

Davinci Resolve

I use Davinci Resolve Pro to build the episode #00. It takes about +16h to create a story. It was a real pain to align DJI rushes with Mevo because sound was not loud enough to match.

The real game took +3h and 20go for each Mevo. So I speed up the end of the game that was focus on strategy and position. The episode #01 took also 3h but objectives force players to move forward. I need to find a way to speedup the game, reduce the thinking part.

What’s Next ?

A Kill Team game should last about 1h, so I need to improve rules for a more dynamic gameplay. I need a Phone or Tablet to display characterisics of minis.

On the tech side, I will add connected Pixels Dices connected to the SmartTable or HUD for faster game mechanism. I also want to add the ESP32 OLED display to create a « portal effect ».

About 3D Prinitng, the HVAC Tunnels can have levels ! A new way to add pressure to the ennemy !